3 months to secure a place to live in Maynooth

Hi my name is Khairat Obabire and I am going into my second year in Maynooth university. I just wanted to say that it took me 3 months to secure a place to live in Maynooth and I think one of the main reasons why is due to the fact I am a women of color.

The house that I did manage to get was with three other girls that are white. I had emailed the letting agent along with one of the girls at the exact same time with basically the same information and she had got an email back asking if she wanted a viewing. And that happened many times with other houses.

I had also went into a letting agent in Maynooth town regarding a house that they had put up on daft that day and the women had told the House was gone before I could even explain to her about the house in question which I found odd so then a couple of days later I had gotten my friend who was white to go in and ask about the house and she had said if he had have come in a couple of days before he could have been in with a chance because the deposit of the house and stuff had went through that day/morning . Before I even asked him to go into the letting agents I had went up to the housing estate to check if people had in-fact moved in months ago and the house was empty.

As time went on trying to find a house I had to change the spelling of my name to sound less foreign in hopes that I would get an email or a text back and I did which really was upsetting and made me realize that we honestly aren’t moving forward in terms of racism and having an open mind about people. Its honestly so crazy to me how I was cast aside because of my name and stuff and it made me feel ashamed that my other friends could get emails and stuff back and I couldn’t.

This issue really needs to be highlighted to the people and students of Maynooth.